


Who has the time?

by countrygirlsfun



Series: Short Stuff [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Based on a Tumblr Post, Character Death, M/M, Sad Ending, mind the major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-08
Updated: 2014-06-08
Packaged: 2018-02-03 22:32:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1758613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/countrygirlsfun/pseuds/countrygirlsfun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's so easy to ignore. It's not like the time on everyone's wrist is constant. It's always adjusting. Most people don't pay attention to it. </p><p>Why focus on when you're going to die?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Who has the time?

**Author's Note:**

> An AU that follows canon to a point. Major difference being that everyone has the time until they die written on their wrists. Its from a tumblr post that I would link if I could find it again. 
> 
> Here it is. I wrote something sad.

It's so easy to ignore. It's not like the time on everyone's wrist is constant. It's always adjusting. People you meet, people you lose, freak accidents. It all affects the time you have left. Most people don't pay attention to it. Why focus on when you're going to die?

Some people, the people with a shockingly small amount of years to begin with do pay attention and make the most of the years they have. Most people have long full lives written right there on their wrists.

Stiles Stilinski was fascinated by the little numbers etched in his skin. For all of three minutes once he was told what they meant. He promptly fell into the normal habit of ignoring the small little changes. Every few years he'd notice the time ticking down like it should. The day he sat curled up with his mom watching a movie he watched as her time faded from years to months. The small family of three panicked. Nothing could be done as they watched the woman they loved fade away slowly. The young boy was obsessed with his own time for months after her death. He adjusted to his grief in different ways and soon returned to ignoring how much time he had left to live. He plastered on big smiles, talked too much about very little, devoted himself to his best friend.

Derek Hale didn't care. Once he was old enough to understand what the numbers meant he realized he had nothing to worry about. Decades were written there. Being werewolves his whole family generally ignored their own time. Having supernatural advantages gave them a justified sense of security. So when Derek met Kate and started dating her secretly, neither he nor his family noticed the change on their wrists. Only after he had his pack, his family, and his heart burned out of him did he notice his own time that no longer counted as decades. But Derek didn't care. He deserved whatever was coming in those short fifteen years. He'd left his hometown with his one surviving family member. After coming back and finding her dead the fire that smoldered ceaselessly within him burned bright again. The guilt that he again, just couldn't protect his alpha, his pack.

When they met it was like a cool wave crashed over Derek and eased the flames. Well, really it was Stiles crashing into him in the woods with his idiot friend. The friend who from the smell and looks of things had just been turned into a werewolf himself.

For Stiles meeting Derek was like a match had been struck in him. In his clumsiness of tripping over the guy Stiles watched in fascination as the small numbers _jumped_ on his wrist.

Stiles went home that night trying to think about everything that had happened. His best friend is a werewolf. His interaction with Derek Hale added years to his life. Only when he's passing his hand across his face wiping the sleep from it does he read his own time. He suddenly can't breathe; it takes him ten minutes to calm himself down. He'd lost almost as much time as Derek had gained.

He didn't sleep that night trying to decide where he'd go from here. Risk losing more time by sticking around in the world of werewolves or avoid it all together and lose time for normal, preventable reasons.

It took thinking about some of the last bit of advice his mother had given him while she was still coherent.

 

"It's not about the quantity of the years you have sweetie. It's the quality of those years. It's how you live your life not how long it is."

 

He tried to imagine cutting his best friend out his life completely. That was not something he wanted to live through. He'd stay for Scott. If it meant hanging around Derek and possibly losing any more years so be it. He still had a lot of time left anyway.

Derek had gone back to the burnt out shell of his family home. He himself passed his hand across his face and saw he'd had years added. It didn't make any sense. All he'd done that day was- Stiles. He'd met Stiles. Stiles had probably gotten the same thing. He'd probably come try and hang around. Use Derek for more years onto his life. Well, he'd actively avoid interaction with the kid from now on. He wouldn't let himself be used again.

Time passed. Stiles ended up helping Derek deal with his uncle Peter who had gone crazy with revenge. It was while they helped each other deal with the kanima that trust began to form between them. When Derek caught notice of the time on Stiles wrist once he was reminded that he should try staying away from the kid. But as the teenager held him up in the school swimming pool while he was paralyzed he got a good hard look at the time written there.

Stiles wasn't gaining years. He was losing them.

Unconvinced, Derek considered it to be a fluke. A minor fluctuation was normal for everyone. Stiles himself had resigned that the changes in his time was just that: normal fluctuations. Dealing with supernatural forces just made those fluctuations more distinct.

They soon grew into friends. They both fell back into the routine of ignoring the numbers on their wrist. They faced challenge after challenge and only grew closer.

As each phase of their life passed Stiles watched Derek's numbers increase steadily. His own time had finally evened out. He still had a long time to live and live well.

He got through college and came back to Beacon Hills. Derek rebuilt his family's house; finally ready to build new memories there. Stiles moved in after college. After a couple years they flew to New York and got married. Only a year after that they found a surrogate. Stiles had assumed Derek would want to be the biological father and so was surprised when he said he'd rather have kids with Stiles eyes than the chance of having a born wolf. Over nine months later they were bringing their daughter home.

When Talia turned five things started to change again. Stiles had a full blown panic attack when he saw his numbers had dwindled to a mere five years. He never told Derek. He sneaked to the doctors to try and find out something, anything. But the doctors found nothing.

When Talia was nine a pack of new wolves was passing through town. What started as friendly negotiations degraded into full out territory war. Stiles sat at work watching his time countdown when the years faded from his wrist and he was left with only days. He reached for his phone to call Derek.

He never got the chance.

Being married to the alpha made him a bargaining chip. They didn't realize until they'd beaten him and he wasn't healing that he merely smelled of a werewolf instead of being one. They continued their torture anyway.

He was 'returned' to Derek two days later.

They left him on the lawn of his and Derek's house. Derek was at his side moments later. He raked his eyes across his husband’s injuries as he pulled him into his lap. No amount of surgery would fix this.

"Stiles I know we talked about this but I can't- I can't lose you too."

He made to bite Stiles' shoulder when Stiles stopped him with a bloody hand to his cheek.

 

"They tried. It- it didn't take. That's why they brought me back."

 

Derek clung to his husband and cried. Stiles wheezing breaths didn't stop him from speaking.

 

"Hey, let me see your wrist." 

Derek brought it up for them both to see.

"See all those years? Do you remember where they were when I met you? You have to- to promise me. Promise me you will keep living. I like to think I helped give you those years. I gave you the quantity Derek give them _quality_. Keep Talia close. It’s going to hurt for a while I know ok? But after a while I'll turn from an open wound to a scar. You'll never forget me but you'll feel better living with the memories. Please Derek, promise me. You have to _live_."

"I promise. I promise Stiles."

Derek wept. Moving them even to the house was too much. He held the man he loved letting his tears flow freely.

 

"You knew." He rasped after a minute.

"I knew." Stiles answered. "I watched those measly years jump when I met you in the woods. I knew what I was trading. It didn't matter in the end because if loving you gave you that much more to your life it was worth it Derek. “

 

They laid there for a few moments before Derek heard Stiles heart slowing. Stiles must have realized it himself.

 

“Derek? Turn me around so I can see you?”

Derek shifted his broken body around so he was cradled against his chest.

“I need you to help my dad. And Scott, ok? But most- most important Derek; don’t blame yourself. Please, promise me that too.”

Derek drew a shuddered breath in.

“I promise Stiles, I love you.”

Stiles was growing weaker. His voice getting softer and softer.

“Tell Talia, papa loves her. Please, Derek, I’m _cold_ , I’m sorry, I’m _sorry_. Please Derek kiss me.”

Derek obliged; unable to do anything but kiss his lips quickly, his cheeks, his forehead before he buried his face in Stiles hair and sobbed.

 

“I love you.”

 

It was little more than a whisper but it was the last words Stiles uttered. His heart slowed to a stop moments later.

Stiles wrist was blank.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
